HENRIËTTE GELDENHUYS
Well-known detective Piet Byleveld has added more fuel to the fire surrounding the self-confessed killers of mining tycoon Brett Kebble, claiming he has proof they put out a hit on him while he was investigating them.
He has also expressed shock following an Independent Newspapers exclusive last weekend which revealed that the killers, Mikey Schultz and Nigel McGurk were reissued licences for nine firearms between them late last year.
Byleveld, a former top policeman and now director of private investigations firm Sleuth Consulting Services, was speaking at a book fest in Stellenbosch. He appeared with journalist Hanlie Retief, author of his book Piet Byleveld: Confessions of a Serial Sleuth.
Schultz, McGurk and a third man, Faizel “Kappie” Smith, were involved in Kebble’s murder on the night of September 27, 2005, in Melrose, Joburg. They have maintained that Kebble, who was in deep financial trouble, wanted to die, and they helped him commit suicide.
Byleveld said they belonged in jail – “yet they’re allowed to use their firearms again”.
“I don’t want to swear, but I’m the hell-in. I’ve got a sworn affidavit that they wanted to kill me. I’m not scared of those bouncers. They’re too cowardly to come face me,” he said.
Byleveld, well-known for solving serial killing cases, also investigated the three Kebble killers’ involvement in a bouncer gang in Joburg in the years before they killed Kebble.
In the book Killing Kebble, An Underground Exposed, Mandy Wiener wrote about Schultz, McGurk and Smith, and their hell-raising lives as bosom friends in the bouncer industry, controlling security at clubs in northern and central Joburg in the late 1990s and early 2000s. They took part in various fights during their time as bouncers aligned to the Elite security firm.
Schultz told Wiener he, Smith and McGurk were the “elite of the elite”.
They were later indemnified in exchange for testimony against alleged crime boss Glen Agliotti, the only person charged with Kebble’s murder.
However, the “Kebble shooters” testimony exonerated Agliotti and he was discharged and released in November 2010.
The State’s case against Agliotti was so weak that he did not have to offer a defence.
In Wiener’s book, the three Kebble murderers are also linked to the following crimes in the early 2000s:
l Schultz and McGurk killed a member of the Hell’s Angels, called Red, in Jazz Town Café during a turf war in November 2002. They were arrested and kept in custody at the Booysens police station for a short while before being released.
l Schultz shot and killed alleged drug-runner Renier Groenewald outside a nightclub in Blackheath, near Randburg, in October 2000. Schultz claimed it was an accident and ballistics supported his view that the firearm he used was “volatile”.
l McGurk was charged with defeating the ends of justice after the death in December 2002 of bouncer Patrick Caetano at a Boksburg nightclub. McGurk was released and the charge dropped.
l Smith was a career criminal who made a life out of stealing cars, burglary and bank robbery.
l Schultz has made no secret that he hates Byleveld, who also suspects Schultz of involvement in the murder of Joburg socialite Hazel Crane in November 2003.
When Wiener discussed Byleveld’s suspicions with Schultz, he denied being involved.
Schultz, McGurk and Smith were each promised R500 000 for killing Kebble. In her book, Wiener wrote they were eventually paid R1m to share.
The money was paid by a fourth man involved in the Kebble killing, Clinton Nassif, who testified against Agliotti.
Nassif is the only one of the four killers who did not receive indemnity.
His evidence against Agliotti was found to be untruthful.
l See correction on Kebble docudrama on page 5